restaurant manager, watching the marathon with friend says was also killed. tuesday her family spoke to reporters from their suburban boston home. >> you could not ask for a better daughter. i can't believe this has happened. she was such a hard worker in everything she did. it doe't make any sense. >> with more now, we go to nbc's chris pallone who joins us from boston. good morning, chris. >> reporter: good morning, richard. obviously a very emotional time here in the city of boston. there's been a huge outpouring of sympathy and grief. all across the city, we've seen several demonstrations of people feeling upset, sad for the families. we've seen some candlelight vigils. you mentioned the 8-year-old victim, martin richard. last night in his hometown of dorchester, thousands of people turned out to hold a vigil to remember his family and to keep them in their prayers.

that family is dealing with a realtorible tragedy right now because not only did the young boy die in this attack, but his mother is still in the hospital with a brain injury. his sister lost her leg. so obviously a very difficult time for that family. on the boston common last night, another large gathering, candlelight vigil, people who organized it said they just wanted to do something. they felt like they had to do something to show their support. as we continue on, this investigation will certainly progress, and we'll be watching it every step of the way. richard? >> nbc's chris pollone live there in boston. much of the country is in a state of heightened alert following the terror bombings. and for good reason. mail to senate offices in the nation's capitol has been spended after the discovery after a letter containing a deadly poison. three preliminary tests indicate the letter addressed to mississippi republican senator roger wicker contained ricin. thankfully the envelope never

made it to the capitol. it was intercepted at an offsite screening facility created after the 2001 anthrax attacks there. the envelope was postmarked from memphis, tennessee, but had no return address. it's decision day for new gun-control legislation in the senate, and there's a lot at stake. friendships and even careers. mark kelly told senators jeff flake may be a good friend to him and his wife, but if he doesn't support the gun-control package, the couple may use their political muscle to replace him. tracie, how might that play out there? >> reporter: well, it's not looking good for people who are backing this manchin/toomey amendment. remember, this is the compromise that democrat joe manchin and republican pat toomey came up with, expanding background checks to gun shows and internet sales, hoping to bring the two parties together. and, in fact, there are a handful of republicans, john mccain seems to be among them, who have decided to vote in favor of this. there are also a couple of

democrats from conservative states who have decided to vote against it. and a few in the middle who are undecided or unannounced. and that is why we don't know exactly how this vote may go. but it looks like it's very close, but iffy. this was supposed to be the one part of the gun-control measures that actually had a chance of passing, assault weapons and others up for vote today likely won't. it came after an impassioned plea from former congresswoman gabby giffords and husband, mark kelly, and one of the things that they said, meeting behind closed doors with democrats yesterday was, if you're from a conservative state, if you're up for re-election, and this is not looking good back home, we'll campaign for you if you support it. we'll find out what happens later today. richard? >> tracie potts, thank you so much. scotland yard is on high alert as margaret thatcher is laid to rest. we'll go live to london. plus, former south carolina governor mark sanford is in the hot seat again. we'll tell you why when "early today" returns.

here are some other stories we're following this morning. nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell reporting the gang of eight senators' new bill has been filed. the bill would create a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented individuals currently living in the u.s. former south carolina governor mark sanford is being accused of trespassing at the home of his ex-wife. he's ordered to appear at a hearing next month two days after a special congressional election. sanford is trying to revive his political career after it was derailed by an extramarital affair that ended his marriage. and new zealand has become the 13th country in the world and the first in the asia-pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage. hundreds of gay rights advocates celebrated the 77-55 vote last night outside of parliament there. the heightened state of alert after the twin bombings in boston stretches overseas today. a massive security operation is under way on the streets of

london. the city is saying a final formal farewell to margaret thatcher. annabel has the details. how is the procession going so far today? >> reporter: good morning, richard. the ceremony has just finished. you can see the family have been paying their final respects to the coffin. it's just been driven away from st. paul's cathedral after an hour-long service attended by the queen and her husband, prince phillip as well as dignitaries from over 100 countries around the world. there were a number of senior figures from the republican -- from the reagan administration, among them, george schultz and james baker. margaret thatcher's granddaughter, amanda, now she's 19 years old and comes from dallas. the body now is off to a cremation ceremony, and her ashes will, later on today, be laid to rest alongside her husband at a special garden here

in london. richard. >> annabel roberts live in london, thank you so much for that report. and then check this out. a robbery for the ages takes a break to unite behind those affected by the boston bombing. plus, i'll talk to a former fbi profiler about what's happening behind the scenes in the hunt for the boston bomber. stay with us.

a beautiful morning in the capitol. welcome back. now we go to cnbc's mary thompson. mary, good morning to you. >> richard, stock futures are lower after the markets rebound from monday's steep losses. the dow recovering about 60% of monday's declines yesterday. however, today intel and yahoo! could weigh on trading as both tech giants reported so-so earnings. not so fast. one day after macy's requested an appeal, a court has temporarily blocked jc penney from selling certain martha stewart products. macy's is appealing a lower court ruling from last week allowing its rival home goods that don't carry the stewart name. and toyota says it's now sold more than 5 million hybrids worldwide. the automaker began selling the popular prius in 1997. hybrids now account for 14% of its total sales. back to you. >> wow, 5 million. mary, thank you so much. now as mary was pointing out, if you have money in the stock market, tuesday's bounce

was welcomed, but it was a bad day for american airlines. the ceo apologizing for a computer glitch that grounded all of its flights on tuesday. today could also see some cancellations or delays in the aftereffects. sadly as the country recovers from the attack in boston, business is booming for security companies. in fact, a new york-based company that provides bomb-sniffing dogs says business has already doubled. meanwhile, some folks are selling their 2013 boston marathon medals on ebay with buy-it-now prices up to $499. newspapers from the tragic day are also up for auction. rupert murdoch's news corp. is joining this century, kind of, 20th century fox will be renamed to 21st century fox. but don't be fooled by our graphic right there. the actual logo will remain the same. and budweiser is taking its longtime bow tie logo to a whole new level with a bow tie-shaped can. the new can is easy to grip, but you do lose about one ounce of

bud in that squeeze there. special eight-packs will be available beginning may 6th. now to sports. baseball remembers the victims of the boston marathon bombing. in cleveland, a moment of silence before the indians/red sox game. both teams lining up. some red sox players talked about that tragedy. >> i was there the day before, you know, and, you know, you can't even describe how you feel. i mean, it's just -- you know, all of us on that bus ride was silent. still hard to, you know, put together. in philadelphia, center fielder ben rivera of the phillies put a handwritten message on his glove saying "pray for boston." in new york, yankees fans paid tribute to the red sox. normally their builter rivals. they played "sweet caroline" the popular fenway park sing-along by neil diamond.

♪ sweet caroline >> that really hits the heart there. meanwhile ground crews in denver spent hours clearing away snow at coors field so the rockies and mets could play a doubleheader after the game was postponed by the snow. and former nfl player and legendary broadcaster pat summerall has died at the age of 82. he was best known for his television partnership with john madden. he was best known for his 40 years of nfl play-by-play including 16 super bowls. he'll be missed. >> announcer: "early today" sports is brought to you by touch of gray. get rid of some gray never all. just ahead, dylan dreyer joins us with your wednesday weather forecast. nbc terrorism analyst clint van zandt on the leads in the boston bombing investigation. meet the heroes who stepped up and stood out to help those most in need. you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back. a lot of rain and a lot of snow in most parts of the country out there right now. with the chance of about 6 to 12 inches of snow today across western and central nebraska. we also have the threat of very strong storms mainly in the plains states today with hail and damaging wind gusts and also some isolated tornadoes, especially across oklahoma. out on the west coast, though, things are pretty quiet. a couple of spotty showers are winding down right now in the pacific northwest, but they'll try to redevelop later on today with a chance of some sprinkles.

but really we'll squeeze out sunshine, too, in the upper 50s to lower 60s in the northwest. then on thursday more showers do start to work back in, but it looks sunny and warm in southwestern california. temperatures topping out in the california. warm today in tucson, arizona. so again, while those central and eastern halves of the country are really seeing pretty nasty weather, the west coast is nice today. >> nothing plain about the plains right now, right? >> not at all. good point. >> thanks, dylan. appreciate that. turning back to the investigation into the bombings in boston. former fbi analyst clint van zandt. good morning to you and thanks for being with us. we have you on camera which is fantastic. what do you make of the bomb

part? we're getting some of those pictures right now. very simple things. the pressure cooker and other items. does it tell us whether it's domestic or foreign in origination at all? >> well, it changes our viewpoint, i think, richard. initially when these devices were described as small ieds, i think a lot of us thought as pipe bombs which very much have a domestic flair to it. now when we hear about these pressure cooker bombs, number one, we know that they've been used internationally, places like afghanistan and pakistan for 50 years. we know that one went off in india two months ago and killed and injured dozens, literally hundreds of people. we know that a u.s. soldier was convicted two years ago of assembling such devices that he was going to use to attack a restaurant where u.s. soldiers hung out. and we know that recently an addition of "inspire" magazine, the al qaeda magazine, had a

formula, had a plan for building these exact same type of bombs. so even though there appears to be an international aspect to it, you don't have to travel to a bomb school in afghanistan now. you can sit in front of the internet and learn how to make one of these. >> another question that you've been talking about, lone wolf or organized? what's the thought? >> yeah. right now there's nothing to indicate that this is so sophisticated that it would take multiple individuals. we know that the pot itself, the pressure cooker, with explosives, with shrapnel would weigh plus or minus 20 pounds. if we have two of those in two bags, richard, that's 20 pounds. that means 40 pounds, the bomber would have to carry two bags into the area, deposit them in two different places and leave again. that's well within, you know, your and my capability to carry

that much weight, but he would have to get a vehicle reasonably close or have somebody drop him off or hurl off. so that's why we're still easily for one person to do, easier for two people to do. >> clint, in the time we've got here, you've been through many of these investigations before, some 30-odd agencies involved right now. what's crucial in the coming days? >> well, number one, they're going to try to identify this pot. realize that they know the make, they know the manufacturer. there may be a serial number on it. but look, the reality is pressure cookers are not necessarily a modern twice. these things have been sold in garage sales and passed on from family to family. i've run down items with serial numbers on them before as an fbi agent, and many times you just hit a blank wall. but we've got the pot. we've got the components. we've got the perhaps black powder that would have been p d

bought. all of these are going to be signature aspects of the bomb that we can run down. and we have these thousands of pictures that are coming in every day, every hour that will likely lead to photographs of the bomber. >> clint van distant, thank you so much.

we've heard tragic stories of pain throughout this whole ordeal, but cases of heroism and support have also emerged from the boston attack. nbc's anne thompson who is from the boston area has more on the heroes of the marathon bombing. >> reporter: if crisis reveals

character, then call boston courageous. carlos arredondo, the man in the cowboy hat, is one of many who ran to help instead of running away. >> i was carrying someone who lost both of their legs. >> reporter: in the midst of his horror, he remembered his lowest point, when he learned his son had been killed in iraq. grief stricken, he set himself on fire and was rescued. he recalled his wife's words of comfort as he calmed jeff baumann jr. baumann lost his lower legs but survived. >> what i experienced myself, give something to comfort him and give him hope and get him out of there as soon as we could. >> reporter: you can call boston kind. peter deandrade lives two blocks from where the bombs went off. leftovers from his pre-race party were post-race sustenance to confused runners. >> we carried everything out on platters and started feeding people and brought out coffee. the little things we could do, my friends and i, to help people out in this time of tragedy. >> reporter: nearly 6,000 people offered their homes online to stranded runners. yes, you can call boston generous. marguerite smith invited three

runners and five friends into her home and fed the shivering group from kansas city. >> they were sitting there not able to get into their hotel, not having eaten, and they weren't complaining. they were just very charming. >> reporter: one of the runners, allie hatfield, posted pictures on her blog writing "people are good." you can say that about boston, too. anne thompson, nbc news, boston. and time now for a look ahead for you. tonight president obama once again has dinner with lawmakers, this time with 12 democratic senators. the white house says the president is building support for his proposals on the budget, guns and immigration. and in illinois, a funeral will be held for a u.s. diplomat killed in afghanistan. 25-year-old anne smedinghoff died in a suicide bomb april 6th. natalie morales is live in boston after the deadly marathon attack. and more of savannah's exclusive interview with president obama. keep it on this channel for more news, weather and sports.

i'm richard lui. thanks for watching "early today" just your first stop of the day on your nbc station. have a good one.

she with was all smiles. couldn't have had a better daughter. >> as police continue to search for answers, we're learning new details this morning about the three people who died in the bombings in boston. we'll bring you the latest next. >> plus, we'll update you on the condition of the young martinez b

boy. outage affecting all of south santa clara county. when things could be online. bouncy shot. got some wind out there. looking at the bay bridge. brace yourself. christina loren will be along to talk about that. it is wednesday, april 17th. this is today in the bay. it is 4:31 on the nose. thank you, everybody. thank you so much for joining us. i'm jon kelley. >> and i'm laura garcia-cannon. looks windy. what are you up to today? >> it is windy. it will be another blustery start to the day. the good news is, jon and lawyera we'll see those winds finally relax as we head into the second half of the day. temperatures will be warmer. mid 70s on the way. things start to really heat up.

your full forecast in a few minutes. first let's see if there's any problems on the roadway. hi, mike. >> good morning. light volume of traffic. no major slowing. one south bay accident to talk about. not northbound 101. volume of traffic, very light, easy flow at the 680 interchange. overall the south bay is looking good. little slowing for 880, slow in both directions from the on and off ramp there. no big deals except for this crash we're working on. north 101 at hillyer avenue, blocking just the shoulder. an ambulance is heading over there. it doesn't sound serious. i'll track that for you and let you know. so far, all lanes are open. back to you for now. >> 4:32. people around the world are continuing to show their support for the victims of the boston marathon bomb attack. >> a total of three people have died, 170 injured. "today in the bay's" chris pollone is in